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home » festivals » Glastonbury Festival » Glastonbury Festival 2009
Animal Collective deliver one of the performances of the weekendGlastonbury 2009 reviewWednesday 1st July 2009 When I was doing a bit of reading up on Animal Collective before I planned to review them at Glastonbury, I was shocked to find out how old the band actually is. Merriweather Post Pavilion, their latest album, released in January this year, is actually their 8th studio album, with their first, 'Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They're Vanished’, released in 2000. It may well be nearly nine years since their debut album, but it's easy to see why their latest album is their most successful and critically acclaimed, simply because it's the most accessible. Listening to their early material, I can see the talent, but I find it very difficult to take in and enjoy, unlike their recent work. The four-piece Baltimore band have even given some of their old songs a re-vamp to make them more accessible in their live shows. Songs such as, 'Chocolate Girl', 'Grass' and 'Who Could Win a Rabbit' have undergone this treatment. This was the first time I've seen the band live and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Attracting a mix of the curious, the hipsters and the art students, the band came on to rapturous applause and left the stage with the same. For me the band delivered one of the performances of the weekend, and was certainly one of my highlights, with the band’s swirling melodies from the synthesizers sounding perfect around the Park stage. I spent much of the rest of the weekend telling the people I spoke to that weren't there what they had missed. Their set built up throughout reaching its climax with the song 'Brother Sport', resulting in a conga taking place around the hill. The best song of the set, 'My Girls', which has been declared by several media outlets as the song of the year already, is unfortunately played very early on, but that doesn't detract from how beautiful the track actually is. A mix of synthesizers, drum beats and excellent vocals, the song echoes out around the hill and at the moment everybody seems fixated upon the band, either smiling or in awe. It definitely is a fantastic song perfect for festivals, and as such could become an anthem for the year, but with only one more UK festival appearance booked for the year at Green Man in Wales (book your ticket now – the line-up looks fantastic) it looks unlikely that it will happen due to the lack of exposure over here. Before the festival, they were a must see for me as it's unlikely that I'll get to see them again this year, and I certainly wasn't disappointed with what I witnessed, and that was an excellent band delivering an equally brilliant live performance. review by Anthony Hetherington |
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